POST 1: INTRODUCTION

Theres a bump in the road...

(7 weeks & 2 days)

I'm hoping that this blog can be of some help and guidance to at least one other woman in my situation, or at the very least, myself.


Let me explain….


I am 27 years and 3 months old 
I am 7 weeks and 2 days pregnant,
my date of conception was approximately any day between Saturday the 16th and Saturday the 30th of July 2011, 
I have around 33 weeks remaining until I give birth on the 21st of April 2012.


My contraceptive injection Depo-Provera (one of the most potent and trusted contraceptives) failed, I felt angry and duped, but no contraception available is 100%. It can happen to 1 in 100 women, so do the math on how many women there are in the U.K alone.
I've always stated that I did NOT want children and I've always supported pro choice for these types of circumstances (www.prochoicemajority.org.uk). In this case I shocked myself when I made the choice not to go through with a termination (abortion), yet my choice in the eyes of the father was the wrong one. I think that a majority of the time, the other party does not see that it is the woman's body and therefore the woman's choice to make. A termination is an extremely difficult experience both mentally and physically and should not be decided by anyone but the person going though with it.


Once I had decided what I was going to do I knew I had to  inform the father. At the time I had very recently ended the relationship and the conversations that we had did not go well. All contact was cut after an email from him that ended 'This is your decision not mine, I do not want to be involved' even though at this point my rational mind was telling me to get on with this alone, like any woman, I have to admit I did feel heartbroken and let down. It still hurts very much and I don't think that will ever fully go away. When you lose the support of the father I think that's when you need all the help you can get.


After I hung up the phone and deleted the email I had to start thinking realistically. I had to leave the country I was working in (Ireland), decline lucrative job offers in Spain and London then move back to the countryside in the U.K with my family. This would buy me time until I figured out how to get sorted, as I couldn't possibly work abroad whilst pregnant. The father is out of the picture and lives in Ireland so any minute chance of financial or emotional support is out of the question, I have just under £2000 in savings and no job, what now?


So here I am, cooped up in the countryside with an ever expanding bump wondering how many women are in this situation…..where are they? wheres all the advice?


In the coming weeks I will be posting links and useful information on what processes I went through within the first trimester of pregnancy (4-12 weeks) after finding myself single and out of work in this alien situation.


In my next post I will be discussing nutrition during my first few weeks of pregnancy


Links (please click the underlined web addresses)
**For NHS abortion advice www.bpas.org Please also consult your GP
**For information regarding Pro Choice www.prochoicemajority.org.uk
**For NHS contraception advice www.nhs.uk Speak to your nearest sexual health clinic
**For Depo-Provera contraceptive injection  www.depoprovera.com 
**For conception calculator www.baby2see.com (all dates are approximate and you must know the first day of your last period)